2016 South Dakota General Election Story

A head to head comparison of the South Dakota 2016 General Election gives us an idea of the break down of the voters.    

Donald Trump received 227,721 votes beating Hillary Clinton who gained 117,485 by a massive 110,236 votes in  South Dakota.                                        

Donald Trump won 61 counties out of the counties that make up South Dakota. The record shows that  Hillary Clinton won 5 counties.  

2016 South Dakota  Primary Election vs Presidential General Elections Counties Won              

In the Primary, Donald Trump 47 counties while Clinton and Sanders won 13 and 6 counties respectively in a 3 way match up. However, in the General Election, Hillary Clinton won 5 counties and Donald Trump won 61 counties.

2016 South Dakota Presidential Primary vs Presidential General Elections w.r.t % Votes and Total Votes Won        

On a head to head count with the total votes between in Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump between the primary and general, % vote shift difference is 3.6% decrease for Hillary Clinton and a 3.6 % increase for Donald Trump. These percentages are represented by a vote increment of 90,439 for Clinton and 182,855 for Trump at the Presidential General Elections.

Clinton's Popular Vote Victory Contributed by California at the 2016 General Elections

During the 2016 General elections, over 146,434,269 total number of votes were cast.  Hillary Clinton got 65,849,971 (65.8 Million) over Donald Trump's 62,984,405 (62.9 Million). She won the popular vote by 2,865,566 (2.8 Million). Trump's win in the State of South Dakota was as a result of a 227,721 vote margin represents 0.4% of his popular vote. The remaining 49 states contributed to his remaining 62,756,684 popular votes.

Top 15 Counties in Primary Elections vs General Elections

Primary vs General

These 15 counties play an important role in these primary elections. If a candidate, can get a sizable majority(like Hillary Clinton) in the biggest county, it becomes very difficult to win majorities in the smaller counties without voter out reach and increased voter participation in them.

Top 15 Counties Comparison in Primary Elections vs General Elections

Donald Trump won in Minnehaha, Pennington, Lincoln and Brown with almost 90k votes. Although Hillary Clinton won in some counties, her margin of victory was not high enough, making Donald Trump gain an upper hand in the State of South Dakota.

Related References: 2016 South Dakota Primary Election Story, 2020 South Dakota Primary Election Story